Autonomous Wave Gliders for Air-sea Interaction Research

The Wave Glider (WG), which was built and introduced by Liquid Robotics in 2008, is an autonomous ocean vehicle which is completely powered by the waves. This slow-moving platform makes it feasible for long-term deployments and data collection, especially in data sparse regions or hazardous environments. The standard Wave Glider hosts a meteorological station (AirmarPB200) which samples air pressure, temperature, and wind speed and direction at about 1 m above the ground. The WG automatically transmit the 10-minute averaged data suite from the PB200 through Iridium satellite link. In an effort to evaluate the WG default Airmar sensors and seek for optimal sensors suitable for air-sea interaction studies, we have developed an independent suite of meteorological and oceanographic sensors for use on the wave glider to include measurements of pressure, air temperature, wind, SST, and surface waves. We have deployed the Wave Glider and this new instrument suite three times, along with a collocated drifting buoy (Marine Air-Sea Flux buoy, or MASFlux) with proven flux, mean, wave, and SST measurement capabilities for comparison and validation. We will present our initial analyses on data from the new mast. Its measurements will be compared to the MASFlux measurements. Measurements from the PB200 will also be evaluated in the same manor. We will also present results of surface fluxes of momentum, heat, and water vapor using the mean measurements from the new sensor suite and the COARE algorithm.